"Just my luck."
The call rang out quietly, a lamentation that had slipped past his lips despite his best efforts to hold it in. A few paces to his right, Tsuchimikado glanced at him with a half smirk.
"Perk up, Kamijou!" The loud, forceful words were accompanied by a slap to his back, causing him to stumble forward a few steps.
He grimaced, looking back at Fukiyose. "Look here, Fukiyose…." He started. "What exactly do we have to be excited about right now?"
"You jest, Kami-yan!" His blue-haired pervert of a friend, Aogami, exclaimed. "We've been given the most gracious opportunity to compete in close quarters against a group of proud, proper, high-class girls! Such a vigorously physical sport, any number of accidents might happen-"
Fukiyose cut him off with a jab to his side.
Touma sighed. "We competed against Tokiwadai during the Daihasei Festival, remember?"
Hunched over and clutching his side, Aogami grinned "Ah, but that took place under the watchful eyes of the city leaders and the public at large."
"Exactly!" Tsuchimikado butted in. "There was no room for accidents during the Daihasei. We would've been removed immediately. But here, in a private competition-"
In much the same way that Aogami had been silenced moments before, Fukiyose cut off the blonde with a sharp jab to the side, knocking the wind out of him and bringing him to his knees.
Fukiyose turned a sharp glare his way, and Touma raised his hands in surrender, despite not having taken part in the ridiculous discussion himself. It wasn't a fair assessment at all. He could honestly say that he had no desire to end up in any sort of compromising position with any of the girls on the opposing team.
Mostly.
Well, almost all of them.
Actually, there was only one exception.
It hardly mattered though, because even if he did somehow luck out in that area, that luck would turn on him with a vengeance. If the girl in question didn't kill him immediately, then the many other high-level espers who look up to her as their ace definitely would.
"Is that a blush I'm detecting, Kami-yan?" Tsuchimikado grinned as he straightened out. "I noticed you stealing glances at Tokiwadai's Railgun earlier. Planning to make a move?"
That bastard.
He wanted to protest, but before he could get a word out, Fukiyose knocked the wind out of him with a swift, merciless blow to his gut.
"You're shameless!" She scolded the three of them. "Seriously, Kamijou, even you should know that she's out of your league."
The surrounding classmates who'd been listening to the conversation piped in.
"She's got a point."
"Kamijou with a high-class level 5? Not a chance."
"Kamijou does have an odd way with girls, though…"
"Leave something for the rest of us, man!"
He hung his head with a sigh. "It isn't like that!" He tried explaining to the group of hyperactive classmates. "Mikoto and I are friends! I wasn't–"
He got cut off by another jab to the stomach.
"She might be younger than us, but she's still a level 5. You shouldn't refer to her so casually." Fukiyose said sharply.
He wanted to cry from the injustice. "I have permission though…!"
Fukiyose huffed, clearly not believing him.
He was saved any further abuse by the arrival of their teacher. "All right, everyone, gather around!" She started. Noticing the boy hunched over, her eyes went wide in alarm. "Kamijou-chan! Are you not feeling well?"
"He just needed some unhealthy thoughts knocked out of his head." Fukiyose offered by way of explanation.
His moan of protest went ignored.
Komoe explained to the class how the day was going to work.
It might seem odd that a high school and a middle school of such blatantly different reputations had engaged in a sports competition in early December, of all times. And indeed, it was abnormal.
The students didn't have a solid grasp of the events that had led up to this day, but the general understanding was that the two principals had met over drinks one night, engaged in a heated argument about the abilities of their students, and had decided to settle the matter through good old-fashioned sports. The use of abilities was prohibited. Today would be a battle of physical strength alone.
Maybe it wasn't fair, one might think, that a co-ed high school grade was challenging an all-girls middle school grade to what amounted to purely physical challenges, but the principal had assured the school that the second-years of Tokiwadai were more than capable of handling this task.
And so here they were, on a day that was definitely too cold to be hanging around outside in gym uniforms, getting ready for a day of facing younger girls on a playing field in order to settle a grudge match between a couple of drunk adults.
It was something different to do for the day, at least.
Komoe split everyone into groups, which basically amounted to everyone grouping up with their respective classmates. There were three teams that would take turns participating. There was no choosing what sport they would be taking part in– that knowledge would only be revealed once the teams were on the field.
Touma glanced across the field at the Tokiwadai girls as Komoe handed out colored bands to everyone, designated their team.
He didn't know what to expect from the other girls at that school, but he did know that Mikoto was incredibly athletic. And if that was a good measure of the standard at this school, then his classmates were going to be nursing a rough blow to the ego once they faced these girls in a game.
"Ara, Kami-yan, there you go again. Keep that up, and she'll catch you staring."
He jerked his eyes away from the girl, focusing instead on his blonde classmate. "Shut up, Tsuchimikado."
"No need to be bashful. I know how much time you've been spending with her. Have you popped the question yet?"
"What do you–?!" Touma could feel his face burning. Emphatically, he insisted "We're not like that!"
"Oh? So the Railgun is free then? Good to know, I'll make sure to pass that along to the other guys–"
Tsuchimikado had turned to walk back toward the class, but Touma had grabbed him by the arm before he could take a step. The blonde looked back with an annoyingly smug look.
He had no idea just how much Tsuchimikado knew when it came to him and Mikoto, but the guy was a spy who had long since admitted to be keeping tabs on him. Plus, he lived next door, and Mikoto had been to his dorm room more than once. Touma assumed that the guy was pretty well informed.
Still, it was incredibly frustrating that Tsuchimikado, of all people, knew enough to be able to set him off with a single casual comment.
"Don't go around spreading weird things." Touma warned him, choosing his words carefully. "She doesn't hold back on guys who hit on her."
And neither would he.
"Relax, Kami-yan. There isn't a guy in our school that has the confidence to hit on a level 5…"
Tsuchimikado trailed off, his eyes fixing on something and his expression faltering.
Touma turned to follow his line of sight.
"Aogami!" He growled.
The blue-haired pervert of a classmate had taken the first opportunity he had to walk over to the middle-school girls and try to talk to them. The three girls who had been caught in a conversation were all smiling nervously, tensely inching back from the enthusiastic boy. A few paces away, Mikoto was watching, eyes narrowed, a few sparks dancing around her bangs.
For a moment, Touma considered bailing his friend out from the dangerous situation, but a moment later, he turned that wide grin on Mikoto, clearly trying to flirt.
Far from feeling bad for his friend when the lightning struck, he found there was a hint of satisfaction to it.
Once the lightning had died down, Touma went up to his collapsed heap of a friend.
"Sorry about him." He apologized to the girls, picking the guy up by the collar. "There's something wrong with his brain."
One of the girls Aogami had been talking to first smiled, blushing slightly and waving her hands in emphasis "Oh, that's okay!"
Mikoto crossed her arms. "Geez," She said. "Keep a collar on that one."
Fukiyose, who had noticed the commotion, came over, taking possession of the human heap known as Aogami from Touma. She bowed to the girls, saying "Our apologies! We'll make sure this idiot receives proper punishment."
Now he was starting to feel a little bad for his friend.
Touma started to leave with the rest of his classmates, but Mikoto called out to him first "Touma, wait a second."
"Mm?" He paused, looking back at her as she jogged a few paces to catch up with him.
"Which block are you in?"
"Second." He answered.
Immediately, she grinned. "We're competing, then."
He sighed. "Just my luck."
"Giving up already?" She teased.
He turned to face her full-on, giving her a cheeky smile. "Not a chance. Why? Feeling a little worried?"
"Against you? What do I have to be worried about?"
"Don't get too cocky. There's no esper abilities in this game, Mi~ko~to." He drew out her name as long as he could, tapping her forehead teasingly. "Don't take us high-schoolers lightly."
Fukiyose frowned as she watched the two. She'd lectured the entire class that morning on not antagonizing the middle-schoolers. What did Kamijou think he was doing?
Mikoto didn't seem annoyed though. With her hands on her hips, she said "Oh? You think you can beat me?"
"I'm betting I can beat you." He corrected.
"You're on." She answered immediately, holding out her hand to him. He clasped it, sealing the deal.
"Same rules as last time?"
"Loser faces a penalty game."
"Got another collectible in mind?"
"Already planning to lose?"
"No way, I know exactly what I'm gonna have you do when you lose."
"Keep dreaming, you idiot."
Their banter was sharp, but the two were still grinning widely. Letting go of his hand, she turned to rejoin her group, walking off with a wave.
"Kamijou," Fukiyose started with a harsh tone as he rejoined his classmates. "You didn't have to antagonize her like that."
"Relax, Fukiyose. Mikoto loves competing. Since we have to do this anyways, we might as well have fun, right?"
She rolled her eyes, grumbling "I can't believe you're close with a level 5."
Touma grinned sheepishly. "I told you earlier, didn't I? A lot's happened. She's one of my best friends."
Her eyes widened in surprise. Fukiyose could accept that Kamijou and the Railgun were close. She could brush off Kamijou calling her by her first name as him being rude, but since she did the same with him, it was likely true that he had permission. But the look on his face as he talked about her caught her off guard. Fukiyose had never seen that particular look on Kamijou before… a look of genuine, tender fondness.
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Was he…?
"All right, everyone! Find your groups!" Komoe announced, clapping her hands together. "It's time to get started!"
The first group took to the field, and Touma's class settled in the stands to watch the match.
"What do you think the game is gonna be?"
"Beats me. There's rumors that the organizing team went completely overboard with some of the prepared games."
"Think they're gonna be rigged?"
"Nah, a group of high-class girls wouldn't stoop to things like that."
"Then we're basically guaranteed a win right? Since they can't use their powers."
"I dunno. Did you see some of those girls during the Daihasei? The Railgun especially. Those girls are fit."
Touma pointedly avoided joining the conversation as his classmates bantered.
The organizing committee was composed of a few students from both schools, but it was apparent from the start that the person in charge was the blonde Tokiwadai girl. She directed the rest of the kids efficiently, and within a minute of the two teams taking to the field, she had a megaphone in hand.
"Is everyone ready?" She said in a jovial, laid-back voice. "Well, either way, we're getting started. The first game of the day will be capture the flag!"
"Capture the flag?" Tsuchimikado repeated, leaning his head on his hand. "Isn't that a bit tough in an open field?"
Touma could agree with that. It was a game that worked best when there were obstacles and hiding spots. In an open field, it was mostly just people tackling each other. With some boys on one team and high-class girls on the other, was such a high-contact game really a good idea?
For that matter, weren't they calling this a sports day? Since when was capture-the-flag a sport?!
Before anyone got too caught up in the logistics, though, the blonde girl continued "If both groups would stand behind the white line, please."
The groups retreated, momentarily confused.
Then the sound of giant gears turning boomed through the stadium, and the field split open.
A couple of his classmates fell over from shock. Most of them, himself included, continued to stare agape as a new field, complete with makeshift buildings and a miniature forest, rose to replace the regular soccer field that had been sitting on top of it a minute before.
"What the heck is this, a Coliseum?!" Someone shouted.
The Tokiwadai girls didn't bat an eye at the new field. This particular stadium was one affiliated with their school, after all, so nothing this high-tech building did would come as a surprise to them.
"Those high-class girls really do live in a different world, huh?" One of his bewildered classmates muttered.
The blonde girl continued with her instructions as though nothing had happened. "All members will now tie their team ribbon to their wrist in the method directed. I'm sure we all know how this works, but I'll tell you anyway- the field is divided into two territories. In order to win, your team must retrieve the flag of the opposing team and bring it back to your home territory. Only three people max are allowed to protect the flag at any given time. Roughhousing is not allowed. If a member of the opposing team removes your ribbon, you must return to your team's designated 'spawn point'. That covers everything, right?..." The blonde looked over at one of the other committee members, who gave her a thumbs up. The blonde huffed, crossing her arms. "Geez, it would've been a lot faster if they'd let me write this information into everyone's minds… no matter. Get moving, this starts at the sound of the horn!"
The two teams quickly took to their designated sides of the field.
Aogami slumped over in his seat next to Touma, recovering from whatever punishment Fukiyose had dished out. "Aaaah," He sighed. "If only we were the ones competing in this beautiful high-contact activity–!"
"Oi," Touma scolded him, glancing nervously at Fukiyose a few paces away. Did Aogami not have the slightest sense of self-preservation?
"Relax, Kami-yan, I won't go after your girl." He said, waving his hand at Touma dismissively. "I hope we get a good sport too…"
"My–?!" Touma jerked, his eyes finding his blonde friend, who was grinning smugly. "Tsuchimikado, what did you–?!"
The starting horn broke off the conversation before Touma could start wringing his friend's neck.
"All right, everyone!" Fukiyose directed loudly. "Let's cheer them on!"
"Fight hard, girls!" Someone shouted immediately.
"Dude, I think she meant we should be cheering for our side."
"I can do both."
In the stands opposite from where they were sitting, the Tokiwadai girls were similarly cheering for their classmates, an effort mostly being led by a girl with long black hair.
The match started out slowly. The Tokiwadai girls huddled together, clearly strategizing. On the other side of the field, the kids from Touma's school quickly settled who would be guarding the flag with a match of rock-paper-scissors. It wasn't clear whether the winners or the losers were the ones staying behind, but one of the guards slumped in defeat at the arrangement as the rest of the group left the safety of the home base.
Touma's school apparently had no plan beyond raiding the enemy camp. Everyone moved individually across the field, which meant they were coming in from too many angles for the Tokiwadai girls to cover.
Unfortunately, that didn't make it a good strategy. The girls had split into five teams of three. While one team stayed to guard the flag, the other teams moved together. The girls had no trouble ambushing the high school kids and stealing their ribbons, sending them back to the home base. Not a single one made it anywhere close to the Tokiwadai flag.
"Morons!" Fukiyose shouted at the players on the field. "Work together! The Tokiwadai girls are way ahead of you!"
"I thought we were supposed to be cheering for them…?" Touma muttered.
Whether they heard Fukiyose or not, the team did start reorganizing into groups of three to match what the girls were doing. With even numbers, they started making some real progress into Tokiwadai territory.
Something the girls had, apparently, anticipated.
Just as almost all the high school groups had advanced into enemy-controlled space, the Tokiwadai groups suddenly broke apart, and a group of five girls broke past the line of opponents. The three high-schoolers left on defense, all of whom had started to slack from the lack of action, weren't ready, and while four of the girls took them on, the last slipped past and grabbed the flag.
The rest of the Tokiwadai girls attacked in a flurry, and within ten seconds, nearly all of the high school kids had lost their ribbons, leaving no one to intercept the flag-bearer as she sprinted back to her home field.
A groan rippled through the high-school spectators as the horn sounded again. Touma wasn't exactly surprised that the high school kids had lost, but it was demoralizing for his classmates all the same.
"Yes, yes, good work to everyone and all that." The blonde announced through the megaphone. "This round goes to Tokiwadai!"
The girls cheered, and the high school team shuffled off the field in defeat.
"Will the second block please report to the field in 15 minutes." The girl continued in the same laid-back tone.
Fukiyose clapped loudly, and like a group of trained animals, Touma and his classmate jumped to attention.
"All right!" The class rep started. "The first team suffered a loss, so it's our job to bring home a win to boost morale! Visit the bathroom and get some water now. Meet on the field in 10. If anyone is late, they'll be facing punishment."
"The blonde girl said 15 minutes though…"
"What was that, Aogami?"
"Nothing!"
The students started moving, a few taking Fukiyose's advice and rushing off to the bathroom before their match started.
"Kamijou," The girl said, a little quieter. "Don't you dare think about letting the Tokiwadai girls win just because you know the Railgun."
A few of the classmates glanced over at the juicy piece of information being revealed. They'd heard Touma's earlier dubious claim to being friends with the level 5, but if Fukiyose was calling him out on it, then the claim must be genuine.
"Did you miss the part where we made a bet?" Touma shot back, a little annoyed at the accusation.
"For all I know, you want the Railgun to have her way with you."
His face immediately started burning. "What did I do to earn that impression?!" He cried in protest. "I'm not pulling any punches!"
"So you want to have your way with the Railgun? I see."
His classmates immediately piped in.
"Bold, Kamijou."
"How do you get so many girls?!"
"Leave something for the rest of us, man!"
Touma slumped in defeat. His instincts were telling him that this had already spiraled well beyond his control. The best thing he could do now was bear his classmates' comments and pray that the impression they were forming of him didn't get any worse.
Ten minutes later, with drill sergeant Fukiyose in the lead, Touma's group gathered on the field. He did his best not to focus on Mikoto's side too much, determined as he was not to let his image sink any further than it already had that day, but the two somehow managed to lock eyes a couple times regardless. Mikoto smirked competitively each time it happened.
"All right, all right." The blonde girl started once the fifteen minutes were up and both teams were set to go. "Same drill as the first round. Step behind the line, everyone."
"She's not announcing what the competition is first?" One of his classmates muttered.
The two groups retreated to opposite sides of the field, and like with the first round, the sound of giant gears echoed through the stadium, and the floor opened up to reveal a new stage.
The high school kids gaped.
The blonde cheerfully announced the second game. "The second round is going to be an obstacle course race!"
"Is this a military course?!" One of the high school kids cried.
"We have to run the whole thing…?"
"How is this a sport?!"
The middle school girls hardly batted an eye, and Touma seriously wondered if this sort of thing was part of their regular gym class.
The blonde elaborated on the rules of the game. "One person from each team will race against each other to complete the course. Each team gets a point for every individual win. The team with the most points at the end takes the round. I'm sure that's clear enough for everyone, so go ahead and pick your first player."
Touma grimaced. The first round would set the bar for the entire game. How fast they went, how much they struggled, and where they struggled more- everyone would learn from the people going before them, so naturally, going first was the most disadvantageous position. No one was going to volunteer for that.
"Ah, the high-schoolers have their candidate, then?"
Touma looked up at the blonde, who was looking toward him, then glanced around and quickly realized that his classmates had all shuffled back.
"Hey–!" He protested.
"Good luck, Kamijou!"
"Fight hard!"
"Don't you dare lose!"
His classmates waved and cheered innocently as they sacrificed him to the wolves.
"Traitors." He lamented quietly for a moment. Then, accepting his rotten luck in being the first one selected, he clenched his hand into a fist and tried to pump himself up.
Which got a little easier to do when his opponent stepped forward.
"I'll go." Mikoto volunteered, stepping away from the other girls.
The blonde announcer smirked, glancing back and forth between the two of them for a moment. "Misaka-san! How noble of you to volunteer."
Mikoto didn't fail to notice the teasing glint in the blonde girl's eyes. "Shut up, Shokuhou."
Touma grinned as the two stepped up to the starting line.
"So how does this work?" Touma asked her. "Does whoever wins this race win the bet, or are we staking it on the overall score?"
"I'll stake it on this." She accepted.
"Really?" He smirked. "Have you ever scaled walls without your powers before? It's tougher than it looks. Sure you don't want some insurance?"
"You're going to eat those words." She promised, getting into a starting position.
A loud horn sounded, and the two shot off.
The first obstacle they reached was a bar, about shoulder-height for Touma but reaching Mikoto's head. The girl dashed straight for it, jumping and grabbing hold of the bar, using her momentum to seemingly effortlessly swing herself up and onto the bar. Touma wasn't so skilled in acrobatics, but he had the raw strength to pull himself up onto the bar in a couple seconds.
Beyond the bar was a beam they had to run across in a balancing act, which they both managed at roughly the same pace, jumping down off a wall on the other end and rolling to disperse the hard landing. It wasn't so high that the roll was necessary, but both did so automatically.
Touma was not trained in parkour or anything of the like, as far as he knew. He'd simply been chased often enough by enemies that he had a good instinct for the basic skills. Mikoto, on her part, had extensively experimented with acrobatics to reach the point where she could safely launch herself from building to building with her powers.
In other words, they were both self-taught pseudo-experts in this sort of thing. And it was turning out they were pretty evenly matched.
They jumped over a series of low bars, then reached an open stretch that ended in a flat wooden wall, something that was easily taller than them both and had no ropes, handles, or footholds of any kind. Touma paused, wondering what he was supposed to do with this one.
Mikoto knew what to do, though. After taking a couple seconds to catch her breath, she ran for the wall, jumping just before she reached it, then braced her impact on the wall with one foot while grabbing hold of the top of the wall.
Ah, he thought in admiration as the girl pulled herself onto the wall. That's how you do it.
"Go, Kamijou! You're falling behind!" He could hear Fukiyose yell.
He ran for the wall, mimicking what Mikoto did before him. As the taller one, he didn't have to jump as high, but he very nearly missed. His heart was racing as he pulled himself over the wall, looking down at the next obstacle.
Shaking his hands a little in preparation, he jumped down from the wall.
The next one was the deceptively simple monkey bars. Mikoto was already on the second row when Touma reached it.
He grinned, grabbing onto the bars- then immediately started skipping every other bar as he swung forward.
"Hey!" Mikoto protested as he swung past her.
"It's my natural reach!" He defended.
The girl paused, her eyes narrowing in concentration for a moment, then she swung her legs back with all her strength, and used the momentum to launch herself forward, letting go of the bars and skipping the entire second half of the obstacle, landing squarely on the ground at the end.
"How–?" He started, landing a second behind her.
"Practice." She answered as she darted ahead of him.
"Wait–!"
Touma doubled his speed, trying to catch up to her.
The last obstacle was a simple matter of climbing– that is, climbing a loose rope ladder, which swung around rather unforgivingly. Once again, Touma tried to use his reach advantage to overtake Mikoto and started moving past her.
But Touma had forgotten one simple thing.
Kamijou Touma was unlucky.
It was an easy thing to forget, in a skill-driven obstacle course like this, but as in anything, a sprinkle of luck always had the power to sway the results one way or another.
Just as he was reaching above him, a noticeably out-of-place gust of wind swept through the open-roof stadium, swinging the rope ladder.
He was in just the wrong position to handle the shift. Touma lost his foothold, falling a good meter before getting a grip on the rope ladder again and halting his fall.
Mikoto, on the other hand, had been in a perfect position to withstand the sudden gust. And as Touma fell behind, she pulled herself up that last bit and hit the button at the top, claiming the first obstacle course victory for Tokiwadai.
Touma sighed, dropping the ground with a resounding thump and waiting for Mikoto to climb down.
"What was that about needing insurance?" She said as she landed on the ground triumphantly.
"Damned rotten luck." He complained a little, although he couldn't help but smile at the cute way in which she proudly tilted her chin.
"Still fine with staking the bet on this?" She checked.
He shrugged. "A loss is a loss." Seeing that the organizers were waiting for them to get off the field, he said "Catch you later?"
"I'll come find you." She promised with a wave, heading back to the Tokiwadai section of the field.
A moment later, Touma rejoined his own classmates.
Thankfully, Fukiyose did not accuse him of having thrown the match. Unfortunately, based on the looks she was giving him, he wasn't sure she was convinced he hadn't thrown the match. His other classmates praised his effort, though, so he didn't feel the need to challenge her rotten opinion of him.
The rest of the races were surprisingly close matches. The Tokiwadai girls were clearly in better shape overall, but the high school kids had the advantage of longer strides and higher reaches. Fukiyose won her match, as did Tsuchimikado. Aogami got disqualified for swinging off the rope ladder and nearly landing face-first in his opponent's chest (his face met her fist instead). Most of the other match-ups resulted in an even win-loss ratio.
In the end, the high-schoolers scraped a victory by two points, and Touma was cursing himself for staking the punishment game on his race with Mikoto alone.
The blonde with the megaphone announced another ten-minute break to the final game, and Touma took the opportunity to get changed out of his gym uniform. He hadn't really noticed it while he'd been racing, but once he'd sat around for a half-hour waiting for everyone else to get through their races, it'd hit him that it really was cold. He wasn't going to suffer in his gym uniform longer than he had to.
Once he was in a December-appropriate sweater and pants once again, with his school jacket in his hand, he made his way back to the stands, taking a seat as the final group of kids from his school got ready to head out onto the field.
It was a few minutes later that a voice called out to him.
"When did you have time to change?"
Touma bent his neck back to look at the girl who had come up behind him and was now leaning against the top edge of his seat. She was still in her gym uniform, holding her water bottle loosely in her hand. "I changed as soon as it was done." He told her. "It's too cold to be hanging around in a gym uniform."
She raised an eyebrow at him, glancing down at her own outfit for a second. "You think?"
"Yes, I do." He picked up his jacket, which was on the bench next to him, and reached over his shoulder with it, laying it on top of her head, taking her water bottle out of her hand as he did.
She shook the jacket off her head, but decided to keep it, draping it over her shoulders like a blanket. It was early December, after all. Even a warm day was a bit too cold to be going around in shorts and a T-shirt.
A few paces off to the left, Tsuchimikado and Aogami noticed the new arrival. Aogami stood up, ready to jump in, but Tsuchimikado caught him in a headlock before he could move. "Give him a few minutes." He hissed to his friend. "Let's just sit back and see how this plays out, yeah?"
He only let go of Aogami once the boy conceded with a slight nod.
"So," Touma started, seeing but decidedly ignoring his two idiot friends off to the side, "Have you decided what collectible you're going to get me to sign up for this time?"
She huffed. "Do you think helping me out with collectibles is the only thing I could think of for a punishment game?"
"I just assume that the list of merch you want never ends." He said, taking a sip of water.
"That's-!" She pouted for a moment. "Well, you're not wrong... But that's beside the point! It's not like there aren't other things I could make you do!"
"You have something in mind?"
"You," She started, putting a hand on his head. "Are going shopping with me."
He gave her a blunt look.
"It's not for merch!" She insisted quickly. "It's for Christmas! Don't tell me you haven't started planning yet."
He grimaced. He definitely hadn't started planning. He didn't even know where to begin.
A scary thought occurred to him, and he said quickly "Don't tell me you're planning to get something for each of your clones."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Do you know what a logistical nightmare that would be? Even if I spent only one minute picking out and packing a present for each clone, it would still take seven straight days of working 24 hours to get through them all. Not to mention I don't even know where most of them are. They had to jump through a lot of hoops to make those girls disappear and keep them safe... I'm not going to risk giving away their locations just to send them a Christmas present."
He smiled at her, taking another sip of water. If she'd put that much thought into it, she probably had been considering sending her clones something.
Mikoto's eyes widened as she finally noticed him drinking out of her water bottle. "Hey!"
She tried to snatch the bottle back, but he held it out of reach with a grin.
"What are you, a grade-schooler?" She complained, still reaching for the bottle.
He stubbornly held onto the bottle. He knew it was a pretty immature method of teasing, but being able to see her expressions made it worth it. "Weren't you the one who said you would get me a drink next time, no complaints?"
"I meant next time we went out." She chided him.
The words practically echoed between them.
Went out.
They both paused, flushing red.
Mikoto jerked back, suddenly hyper aware of the fact that she'd been leaning into him pretty heavily to reach for the bottle. "G-Geez." She said, trying to conjure an exasperated tone. "Just make sure to give it back later."
"You'll get it back eventually," He promised lightly, taking another sip of water.
Mikoto felt her face heat up even more as she watched him.
An indirect kiss. Not one born out of necessity, or an accident. He'd had the option of getting a drink for himself, and he'd chosen to steal hers instead. Sure, he'd primarily done it to tease her, but he still had to be aware of it, right?
"Misaka-san!"
The two turned to the sound of the new arrival- one of the Tokiwadai girls who'd been on Mikoto's team, a girl with long hair and a fan in one hand. In the other hand, she was holding a Tokiwadai jacket. She offered it to the level 5, saying "I brought your jacket over. It's a bit chilly, is it not?"
Mikoto smiled, stepping away from Touma and taking her jacket from the other girl. "Thanks, Kongou-san."
Kongou's eyes widened as she noticed the other girl already had a jacket draped over her shoulders- a black one, in the style of the High School they were competing against. She glanced at the boy Misaka-san had been talking to, noted his distinct lack of a jacket, and put two and two together.
"A-Ah, Misaka-san, very sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt–!"
Immediately, Mikoto understood that her friend had jumped to a conclusion. "No, you weren't interrupting!" She insisted quickly. Hoping to quell any potential rumors, Mikoto set a hand on Touma's head and introduced him. "This guy's a friend of mine."
"A friend…?"
"Kamijou Touma." He picked up the introduction, raising a hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you."
"Kongou Mitsuko." The girl introduced herself in response, her manners kicking in automatically.
A friend?
Kongou prided herself on being pretty good at sizing others up. People's intentions are often clear if one pays attention to the air around them. And she was struck immediately by the air around those two, charged in a way she rarely saw. The girl did not miss the fact that Misaka-san's hand had lingered on the boy's head, or that the boy in question had Misaka-san's water bottle in his hand. Not to mention that he'd clearly leant her his jacket.
'Friend' did not strike her as the appropriate word to describe this.
It would be the height of impropriety to challenge Misaka-san on this, however. Kongou would respect her friend's desire to keep the details of her relationship private.
"Any friend of Misaka-san is a friend of mine!" The girl said jovially. "Pleasure to meet you!"
Touma blinked, a little surprised by the girl's formal tone. So there really were girls that acted like real high class ladies at Tokiwadai, huh? He'd been starting to wonder.
"Kamijou!"
Touma flinched, a nervous sweat breaking out before he had a chance to turn to the new arrival. When Fukiyose used that tone, it usually meant he was about to get knocked out.
The high school girl came to a stop next to the group and put her hands on her hips, glaring sternly.
Mikoto narrowed her eyes at the new arrival. What the hell? This girl has a chest that puts Shokuhou to shame!
"M-My, look at the time! I must get back to the others." Kongou declared quickly, hiding a nervous smile behind her fan as she slipped away.
The others hardly spared a glance as the girl fled.
"I got word that you were shamelessly flirting." Fukiyose scolded. "Really, Kamijou…"
Her eyes drifted to the girl he was talking to, and her sentence trailed off as she recognized her. The Railgun? Again?
"Who's been ratting on me?!" Touma complained. "We're just talking!"
Fukiyose glanced at the middle-schooler, who was wearing Kamijou's jacket, then fixed a blunt stare back on the boy.
Sensing that his classmate was buying a word of it, Touma turned to Mikoto and said "Help me out here!"
Mikoto glanced at the stern-faced girl, then back at Touma.
What did he expect her to say? That he wasn't flirting? Would she even be able to say that with a straight face? They weren't exactly in a convincing position for that, and Mikoto didn't really believe it either.
She looked again to the high-school girl, and a thought occurred to her.
Why should it matter if they were flirting?
"It's fine, isn't it?"
Mikoto surprised herself with her own words. Fukiyose's stern look broke, taken aback as she was by the unexpected response.
The electromaster put a hand on Touma's head again and continued "Unlike with the blue-haired pervert from earlier, no one's being bothered. So it doesn't matter."
Touma could feel heat rising up his neck. Fukiyose was at a loss for words.
Basically, she was saying that she didn't mind if he was flirting with her… right?
"... I see." Fukiyose answered slowly. So that's how it was. She'd suspected there was something between those two from the moment she'd first seen them talking to each other, and this confirmed it for her.
Still, there was just something so odd about the idea of Kamijou actually dating someone. Especially someone as high-class as Tokiwadai's level 5 Railgun.
Touma narrowed his eyes, carefully staying quiet. He was getting the strangest feeling that Fukiyose was jumping to conclusions, but as long as those conclusions kept him from getting hit, he wasn't going to challenge them.
Sensing an opening, Mikoto made a swift move. "I'll be taking this."
Distracted as he was by Fukiyose, Touma didn't react fast enough to pull away from Mikoto as she reached for the water bottle again, and this time, she was able to reclaim it. He might've tried to hold onto the bottle and fight for it, but in the process of getting her hands back on her water bottle, Mikoto had leaned into him pretty heavily, her face coming close enough to his that he felt her breath on his cheek for a second, and his brain completely short-circuited.
She pulled back just as fast once she had the bottle, but she didn't go very far, still leaning on the back of the seat over his shoulder as she took a sip of the water.
Slowly, his brain started working again, and he jokingly warned her "I'll get that back."
"You can try." She answered with a smirk.
Players started gathering on the field, and Mikoto slipped into the seat next to him to watch the final match. Fukiyose, who was now essentially being ignored, heaved a sigh and said "Don't be late meeting on the field after the last match, Kamijou. It's rude to keep the class waiting."
"Yeah, yeah." He acknowledged, half-waving at her as she walked off. Touma noticed that she was heading straight for his two idiot friends, who for some reason seemed to be wrestling (why did Tsuchimikado have Aogami in a headlock again…?), but he decided pretty quickly he wanted no part of that.
The blonde announcer called out the name of the final game: Hide and Seek.
"So much for this being a 'sports' day…" Touma sighed, not even surprised as the field got switched out again for something littered with elaborately built hiding opportunities, complete with a fake forest, crumbling building ruins, and scattered items of outdoor furniture.
"A race is a sport." Mikoto defended.
"I'll give the race a pass, but capture-the-flag and hide-and-seek? No matter how you look at it, those are playground games."
"Well… you've got a point. I'd be willing to bet that Shokuhou picked kid games to make a statement. It was pretty petty of the principals to get students involved in their argument."
Touma definitely agreed. Everything that had led up to the two schools competing was ridiculous. And if they had to get into an argument like that, why in December? Couldn't they have waited for the spring, at least?
But…
His eyes drifted down to Mikoto's hand, just a few inches away from his own. Touma's hand twitched, an impulse he was becoming familiar with hitting him suddenly. A flutter of anxiety tried to hold him back, but it kicked in a second too late to do anything about it. He had already taken a light hold of her hand before a single anxious thought could cross his mind.
"It's a good excuse to hang out, at least." He said.
She smiled, returning his grip. "We hang out all the time." She reminded him.
"I know." He was only half looking at her.
You like spending time with me that much?- is what Mikoto wanted to say, but a wave of nervousness held her back. It was a fine line they were walking, and here, in the stadium, where kids from both their classes could easily see them, was not the place to risk crossing it.
She wasn't sure she was mentally prepared for that anyways.
The two were only half paying attention to the game as it unfolded, joking a bit about the game as the kids on the field got a bit too serious with it but mostly just focusing on the warmth of each other's hand in their own. Neither said a word about it, and they kept it well hidden between them so none of the students around would notice if they glanced their way, but neither gave any indication, at any point, that they wanted to let go.
The game of hide-and-seek ended with a victory for the Tokiwadai girls. Touma wasn't surprised, but a few high-school kids were visibly slumped at the fact that they'd been bested by middle-schoolers. Touma felt for them. He knew the feeling, although he was pretty used to it by now.
All the students from both schools got called onto the field for the official declaration of the winner. The students amicably congratulated each other, most looking bored with the whole thing and a few looking downright exasperated.
The Tokiwadai principal, for her part, took her medal triumphantly and did a little victory dance as the principal from Touma's school fell to his knees in defeat before her. The students from both schools awkwardly looked away from the display.
"Well, at least it was fun." Mikoto said with a pitying smile, joining him again after touching base with the kids from her school.
A different voice cut in, one that came from the Tokiwadai side. "You're joking, right? This was way too much work for something so incredibly unnecessary."
Mikoto's expression hardened, and Touma tensed automatically as he turned to face the newcomer. Whoever this was, Mikoto did not like her.
"Says the girl who only volunteered to be an organizer to get out of participating." She said. "I can't believe you didn't just use your powers to get the day off."
The blonde girl with sparkles in her eyes crossed her arms, a remote held loosely in her hand. "That would've been nice, but since attendance to this farce was compulsory, someone might've noticed the inconsistency. It was less work in the end to go through with it."
"Your logic is as rotten as ever."
Touma tilted his head at the stranger. Glancing at Mikoto, he asked "A friend of yours?"
Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "A classmate. You met during the Daihasei, remember? This is Shokuhou."
He didn't remember at all, actually. Odd. How did he forget meeting someone with actual sparkles in her eyes? He must've had his mind on something else at the time.
Mikoto turned her attention back to the blonde.
"Misaka-san." Shokuhou started with a smile. "The other girls were alight with rumors about you flirting with one of the high-school boys. A boyfriend, perhaps?"
"Boyfr–?!"
"Well, I admit the idea is pretty far-fetched, but girls can get excited over such little things. Naturally, I corrected them, but you should consider your position a bit more before trying to flirt in the future."
Mikoto had flushed a dark red as the other girl spoke, sparks flying around her bangs. Sensing an opening, Touma quickly snatched her water bottle out of her hand again while she was distracted.
"I'm not–! It wasn't–!" Mikoto's denials were rushed, but she found she couldn't finish any of them, since she wasn't entirely sure it was true. "Why do you even care?!"
"What gave you the impression that I care?" Shokuhou shot back, one eye following Kamijou as he inched away from the electromaster with the stolen water bottle. What exactly was that boy doing?
"You squashed the rumors, didn't you?" She pointed out. "Seems like a lot of work for someone who doesn't care."
"As if. I just don't like the idea of you suddenly becoming a hot topic. Popularity is a fickle thing."
Mikoto sighed. "So it comes down to you defending your 'territory', huh…?" She crossed her arms, then lifted her hand as though to drink from a water bottle.
She blinked, finally noticing the missing item.
Mikoto spun around, catching sight of the boy already a few paces away, and yelled "Hey–! Touma!"
She lunged for the bottle, and he dodged around her with a grin.
Shokuhou watched in shock as the boy playfully kept the bottle out of Misaka-san's reach. She'd dismissed the flying rumors about Railgun flirting with a boy, assuming that some of the girls had seen the two speaking and picked up on Misaka-san's obvious crush, but this…?
It was almost like… they really were flirting.
No, she thought. That wasn't quite accurate.
It was like he was flirting with her.
When was the last time she'd seen Misaka-san and Kamijou-san together? Was it really as far back as the Daihasei? Shokuhou did make a point of keeping an ear open for information on the boy circulating through her information network, but details regarding who he spent time with weren't the sort of things that came through. Still, she thought she'd had a decent grasp of what Misaka-san was up to on a regular basis, and she hadn't noticed a shift in her fellow level 5's behavior.
So what was this? And when did this happen?
Like any elementary-school aged kid that snatched something out of the hands of the girl he likes, Kamijou held the water bottle out of Misaka's reach in just a way that the girl was leaning into him to reach for it. Shokuhou didn't need her power to know that the boy was doing so on purpose- the hint of pink in his face and the way his eyes softened told her all she needed to know about his intentions.
"No wonder there were rumors flying around." Shokuhou noted with a grumble. "I never imagined that you two were actually flirting. Could you not act so sickeningly in public?"
Mikoto jolted away from Touma as though she'd been shocked, though it was impossible for her to be. "We're no–!" Again, her automatic reaction was to deny it, but the words died before the sentence could be completed. This was Shokuhou, after all. Even if her powers didn't work on Mikoto, she could still see through her. It was part of what made her so infuriating.
"My bad." Touma apologized lightly, taking a drink from the water bottle.
Mikoto looked back at him in surprise, her face burning.
Was he… admitting that he was flirting?
There was that line again. And there was nothing Mikoto could think to say, because she definitely wasn't risking that in front of Shokuhou Misaki.
Shokuhou felt a pang in her chest at the omission of a denial.
Was he just being oblivious? This boy had never been the brightest, and when it came to interacting with girls, his mannerisms missed the mark often enough that it got him into trouble. Was Kamijou really capable of intentionally flirting to begin with?
She would like to think no… but Shokuhou wasn't blind. And that boy wasn't hiding anything. It was impossible to misinterpret the look of affection on his face as he handed the water bottle back to a flustered Misaka-san.
She grimaced. It's not like she'd had much a chance herself… Shokuhou knew that… but Misaka-san? The flat-chested muscle-headed Amazoness Misaka? Since when was that his type? Wasn't this boy supposedly into older girls with noteworthy chests? Knowing that Misaka-san wasn't his type was part of what made it fun to tease the level 5 about her crush on the boy.
But knowing that now just made her feel worse, because something a couple girls in her clique had once told her immediately came to mind:
A person's type can change on a dime when they fall in love for the first time.
Maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss the silly rhyme.
"Kamijou!" A girl from the high-school group called out. "We're leaving!"
Touma put his jacket back on and got ready to go after his classmates. To Mikoto, he said "See you Sunday?"
Sunday? Shokuhou thought. As in the weekend? As in their one full day off?
As in they already had plans?!
"11 o'clock at the park." She confirmed. "And text me if you're going to be late."
"Got it."
He headed off with a smile and a wave.
The two level 5s stood in silence for a few seconds.
"Maybe I shouldn't have bothered snuffing out those rumors." Shokuhou grumbled.
"What was that?"
"Perhaps I could have a word with Shirai-san… it would be a shame if word about her idol's boyfriend didn't reach her."
"Touma isn't–! Shokuhou, don't you dare!" Mikoto said in a panic. The last thing she needed was for Kuroko to hear rumors about her having a boyfriend.
She smiled. "Kidding. Having rumors flying around is annoying enough. If anyone found out those rumors were true, it would cause an uproar."
Misaka sighed in exasperation.
Shokuhou didn't like it. There was definitely a part of her that wanted to watch Misaka squirm for this as much as possible. But at the end of the day, there was no helping how a person felt. She knew that better than anyone.
Better to just keep it under wraps, after all. She'd hate for 'dating or single' to be added to the list of comparisons being drawn between the two level 5s. The list was long enough as it was.
True to that, Shirai Kuroko never did hear a word about Misaka Mikoto potentially having a boyfriend, although it didn't stop Mikoto from watching Shokuhou like a hawk whenever she came within a few feet of the teleporter.
On Touma's end though, rumors of him and the Railgun being an item started flying around his school almost immediately. At first, he was adamantly prepared to deny it. True or not, he didn't need people hounding him about details of his relationship with Mikoto. But…
"It's too bad. The Railgun's cute."
"I've got a cousin who has a crush on her… sucks for him."
"Never had a chance to make a move myself. Damned Kamijou."
… In the end, he decided it was better to let some rumors fly.
[Author Notes]
This was rough.
The struggle with this one was that I have most of the next chapter done already, so I needed to strike a balance between where the relationship was at the end of the last chapter and where I know it'll be in the next chapter, and I had to keep them there. It was still fun though. The competitive, teasing spark between them during the Daihasei was cute and I was trying to capture that. Did I do okay? Did you like it? Let me know!
On that note, I have a feeling you guys are really gonna like the next chapter. It should be up within a couple days, so keep an eye open for 'By The River'!